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Summer ski touring Ruapehu
Anyone ever try skiing/boarding above the lifts when RAL run their sightseeing programme in December? I was hoping to go for a ski tour, but apparently RAL won't allow you to take skies or boards up the lifts, anyone ever tried this?
BRoz's mates with triplesquare nailed it last season I believe to GP's amazement. Was looking at her driving to work this morning and it is really starting to look a bit bleak. i.e no snow out west at all and not much left in the V headwall and below but if you only have to rock walk from the knoll it could be on.
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"If in doubt, straighten 'em out"
you can take your skis/board up the lifts in summer, I usually do it once a summer or just walk from the turoa side, we still have a lot of snow on the top of the mtn..check out the nz alpine club hut for an overnight stay...also can approach the mtn from the tukino side..have fun
Theres normally enough snow in the valleys above the Knoll, but there's just the matter of getting skis/boards up the lifts discretely. As RAL apparently don't allow. How did they go with that
i have never had any problems, you just carry on your gear and there is no snow usually on the waterfall express so you will have to walk up the knoll and then the whakapapa glacier...bring lots of sunscreen
Originally posted by: voltaren
you can take your skis/board up the lifts in summer, I usually do it once a summer or just walk from the turoa side, we still have a lot of snow on the top of the mtn..check out the nz alpine club hut for an overnight stay...also can approach the mtn from the tukino side..have fun
How far can you get up the Tukino side? If you were in, say, a relatively capable offroad vehicle?
Likewise I assume you're not allowed to drive up Turoa?
I assume it would be reasonably easy, just go to the bottom carpark and drive up onto Alpine Meadow then up Clarries, Boneyard, etc etc... there's a pretty decent track all the way up to the Giant as far as I can tell.
you can go as far as the gate, if you organise it you can have a key sent to you so you can drive all the way up to tukino..but from there its walking....
turoa it is illegal to drive up that road..there is a big sign at the bottom of clarys saying no vehicles..includes mtn bikes..
Good, seems like the person I asked at RAL has it wrong, or I guess they just don't want to encourage people to ski without patrols (which can't be expected anytime of the year when your outside the boundry areas anyway).
So I guess I will just carry my skis up the lift, and then if they stop me. I'll just wrap them up in christmas paper, or something.
Thanks
Yea, we had no issues at all with taking skis up the lift. Three guys carrying all our ski gear and a pack each...and if any skis themselves aren't obvious, our's are probably among the more noticeable - all over 100mm underfoot, including a pair of 189s...
Thanks triplesquare, all sounding very promising will be able to say I skied every month from june to December maybe even January as well.
^^Plan on it quick when they open the lifts. Snow level rising each day and it looks more summery by the day. NG/Tongariro look bare and notice how the track into the Valley completely dissapeared over the past few days. Was 22+ degrees yesterday and rained all day today. Still I have faith in a couple of turns Dec 20ish 
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"If in doubt, straighten 'em out"
if u believe the moon man, there will be a dump down to the desert road on Dec 13 
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I'll scrape the skis off.
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"If in doubt, straighten 'em out"
Still, at the moment enough to ski to the bottom of the valley and almost to midfield at turoa. I'll be heading to the crater, so maybe even get 3 turns in.